How to Teach English with Technology

Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

Online Reference Tools

Judith Fernandez Diaz

2014

BLOGS, WIKIS AND PODCASTS

ONLINE REFERENCE TOOLS

Education has changed a lot during the past years, not only the

methodology that is being used, but also the tools applied. Every single English

teacher must be aware of the new material brought to the field. Having students

apply it the best way possible. Teaching them how to use it and when to use it.

Technology is increasing in a great way, helping teachers to create more dynamic

classes, and students not only to improve their English skills, but also to have fun

while doing it.

When we talk about technology and teaching, we are referring to a huge

amount of data that teachers use in order to make the learning process even

better. Technology has shown that individuals can actually work in their English

process and acquire all that new information that comes from the outside,

learning even more. There are many new improvements and tools that professors

use, the great idea of this is basically that certain technology tools can be used in

every single English class and in any level, as soon as the teacher know to manage

the content in class. To mention some of these great tools, we have blogs, wikis

and podcasts. Being these technological implements used in many countries by

many teachers in their classes, have actually changed the prospective of learning

quite different for many people, and has also helped educators to have more

security in the content they might be teaching. Basically blogs are software

programs created by one person where information can be shared. Talking about

blogs in education, a professor can have their students creating a blog based on

one specific topic and include some main tasks according to it. A great thing about

blogs is that it involves many areas to be covered, where students can share their

homework or assignments with their classmates or with students in another place

or even country. In blogs, students can comment anything they want about their

classmates’ work, and of course the teacher might add the scores of the project

being set up. Blogs are good since several elements can be shared, such as text,

pictures or even video, and at some level point, this videos and audios can be

created by the students themselves. Nevertheless, the educator must always be

prepared on how the material can be taught and of course how much time will

the project take. Creating a blog might take some time and requires patience

from the teacher to show the students how to ¨build it¨. In the other hand, Wikis

might result a little be more extensive in manner of elements to applied. Wikis are

public web sites created by one person and these can be edited or changed by the

people who visit it, alike from blogs which appear to be just one page, in wikis,

other web pages can be linked and there is no order. Links can be attached and

modified as the creator or visitors decide, making wikis more complex in a way

and at some point more interesting since much other information can be added.

With wikis, professors can actually plan a great project for an amount of time in

where students can create and post whatever they like or whatever is being asked

for the teacher, an important fact to point out is that with these resources

students will definitely have the complete access to internet and the content it

has. A full attention from teachers is needed when working with wikis in classes,

having in mind how learners could actually react and how they might want to use

the data found on the internet. Therefore, a good class about how the project will

be evaluate it will be helpful, as well as having parents aware of the project so

they can pay attention to what their children are doing at home. Wikis can be

introduced to class, helping students to extend their knowledge even more and

using it in future tasks. Talking about podcasts, those are known as videos or

audio shows of a specific topic. They can last minutes or even an hour, depending

on the objective of the class and the topic can be chosen by the professor or the

students, according to the task they are performing. The good thing about

podcasts is that the topic and time can be picked up by the teacher and also the

level of the project that the teacher wants to do. Podcasts are usually used for

listening activities, where students can actually develop their listening skills by

watching a good vocabulary video and also the articulation of the lips, or also

listening to it. Podcasts are as well, good for short or long activities in one class

term that can lead the class into a very fun and interesting way. Also, depending

on the level, students themselves can created their own videos or record

themselves, which can actually help them to have more confidence when talking

in a foreign language and to improve whatever needs to be improved.

Learning a new language is not easy, but having in mind that it requires

commitment is essential. Many people have learned to manage a new language

better by using a dictionary at all times, which is completely ok and many times it

is necessary. Dictionaries help second language learners to better understand the

language and culture itself, the vocabulary is vital to approach to a certain level.

During these times, technology has improved the dictionaries and other resources

to better accomplish certain levels of upgrading, such as electronic dictionaries

that can be used during class time to progress student’s vocabulary even more,

and also for them to do an extra effort that is crucial at the time of learning, giving

them perhaps more security. Although there are some important tools to

mention as online references such as thesauruses which are suitable for

intermediate and advanced levels, they are perfect for writing projects and will

help learners to learn in a more creative way. Some other might be the

concordancers and corpuses. At the end, these tools work to better understand

the vocabulary, grammar structures and important new information. I surely

believe dictionaries and thesauruses are good to have in class and that can really

work. Perhaps not only electronic, but books as well. At the end, the more

knowledge, the best for the learners.

Since I started studying English teaching, I never thought that technology

will be an important tool to apply in my future classes. Now that I have learned a

little bit, I find it very interesting and important to start having it into account for

my lessons, I have learned that it does not only help the students to save some

time and to teach them in a widely way many topics during the class, but also that

it is entertained, helpful and even necessary, to start involving kids into the future

life. I will certainly use them if possible.

Regarding blogs, wikis, and podcasts, personally speaking, I have to say that

all three are wonderful resources to apply, but also those can only be put in into

practice according to the level. However I will rather using wikis for my future

courses since I find them more interactive for scholars, and at the end, wikis are

so manageable that a blog or a podcast can be linked to them. I just believe, the

more students can discover by themselves and the more they can that apply new

learning the better the classes can be. Besides, with wikis you can allow yourself

to create a whole lesson plan for a whole quarter, where students can do a new

project every single week and present it, as the way that is was taught to me by

Professor Jonathan Acuna. I started from the beginning getting familiarized with

the technology by doing some small projects with blogs and podcasts and then,

improving that previous knowledge for future tasks asked by the same professor. I

truly believe that is the best way to start introducing technologic tools in classes.

As a conclusion, every single teacher choses what is best for their classes

and for the subject they are teaching, at the end, even though resources are

incredible important, what counts is that the student can really understand the

material and apply it. That is the greatest satisfaction that any teacher could have.